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To: jimpit who wrote (348)	8/5/2001 11:02:35 AM
From: jimpit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 466

PocketPCPassion pocketpcpassion.com Topic:Destinator GPS __________________________________ Bumski unregistered posted 08-01-2001 06:49 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Destinator is AWESOME!!!! I ordered the Pharos system, received it of Friday, installed it, tested it over the weekend, talked with Pharos about the software limitations, returned it on Tuesday. Nice Hardware, but the software ROTS! They were nice enough to back their product with a refund, and I was dissatisfied enough to demand one. The Destinator was over $100 more, the hardware is very close to identical (I think that the Pharos receiver was just a tiny bit smaller). Acquisition was extremely fast, I am comparing that to the Delorme Street Atlas 7.0 w/their GPS receiver. Voice navigation is excellent, I can actually hear the directions, my laptop never had enough volume. All in all I give the Destinator a MUST BUY if you are purchasing an iPaq GPS. Key Points: I have a CF sleve (Whitney's modification of my Vaja case)with a 256Mb CF card (Computers4Sure.com had the best price). I did not want to go to a PCMCIA sleeve because of bulk/weight/power consumption. Power consumption/no moving parts were key in deciding to go CF vs. Microdrive. Based upon this, I could not look at the PCMCIA or FLASH GPS receivers, so I am not going to comment on them. I live in Tahoe and wanted to plan a route to San Jose (apx. 250mi) Pharos could not do it because it spanned more than 2 adjacent areas. Think of an area like a county, California is loaded with these. The next problem is which areas (counties) do you need to load. Pharos included a decent map to help you select them. After downloading all of the areas needed (they are HUGE!) I still could not plan my route because it spanned more than 2 areas. With Destinator I loaded the "area" California/Nevada. Just ONE file, I believe it was smaller than what Pharos needed to do all 3 of their areas. Route calculation time was acceptable, maybe just a bit longer than with Street Atlas, but I am using a Pentium III. I will no longer be using Street Atlas, not that it isn't an excellent product, but Destinator makes my PC/GPS redundant and my iPaq sits on my dash out of the way compared to my laptop. Negatives: OK, Destinator is not "ALL THAT IT COULD BE". But it is MORE than good enough to be better than anything else out on the market now. I did not expect that a PDA GPS would be this good, I was totally wrong. It's price tag is at a premium today, but it's worth it. Recalculation of a missed route was quick, but it tended to be within a local area, trying to get back to it's original track. It several times told me to turn around instead of reexamining the overall route. It at times chose local streets instead of tending to stay on major highways. But Street Atlas also did this. My biggest complaint was that city indexes were skimpy. I could not find Santa Clara, CA or Stateline, NV. Both were my start and end points, Delorme knows these. I had to know that San Jose and South Lake Tahoe were the cities that I needed to go to, then move over to the apropriate areas. The detail of the maps were excellent. File compression is excellent. You will need an additional storage device, but they are really dropping in price (see the $60 128Mb flash card article). It is taking a bit of time to get used to the different interface from Delorme, but I am quickly adapting. Wishlist: Voice Prompting. I want to be able to speak a command and have the PDA/Destinator respond. ie. "Zoom in", "Zoom out", etc... Change button size. The toolbar buttons are excellent, but I do not always use my stylus to select them. When driving I want to be able to use my fingernail to "touch screen" my choices. The current buttons are small and make it difficult to select using my fingernail. If I could select the buttons that I wanted in the toolbar and adjust their size then things like zoom-in/zoom-out would be easier. Summary: BUY DESTINATOR. It is worth the difference in price and in my opinion for the iPaq it is the best product on the market for a GPS. Or buy Pharos if you don't delieve me and suffer as you will never know just how much better a measly $100 could make your iPaq/gps. I am dissapointed that Delorme did not step up to the challenge of making their excellent product Street Atlas a viable contendor for the PDA. The Destinator just ate their PDA lunch. _______________________________________________________________________ pocketpcpassion.com